In Basics, Part II, Neelix and Hogan have the following exchange: Why is Neelix giving orders, and why does Hogan call him “sir”? Is Neelix an officer in Voyager’s command structure? Does he have a rank?
Neelix being homeless most of his life, is Voyager's expert survivalist. He's the only one that knows what resources are available in the DQ due to him being a native. He's the only one that's survived without advanced technology. Hogan calls him "sir" because military officers are trained to show respect, it's got nothing to do with command structure. It's how officers are properly trained to address others.
Neelix gets called sir because of Main Cast member status. Same thing happens with Seven of Nine. Also I didn't get how Kim got to be a member of the senior staff when he was just an ensign considering there were crewmembers outside of the senior staff who outranked him.
The same reason we never saw a "night-side" Command officer on the Enterprise-D (other than Data cause he didn't sleep) Main cast only mentality at work, logic be damned.
Kim can likely be excused on that front since he's one of the more important bridge-crew. And an OPS officer no less who has to have knowledge on virtually all systems.
Shouldn't someone who's a military officer and a Maquis guerilla fighter also have a better sense of survival skills himself? Weren't the Maquis living in caves and scavaging for food too back in the AQ? Sounds like Hogan was just a dumb ass.
He also just stood there and screamed instead of running when that thing came after him. He was like the chick who breaks her heel and runs up the stairs instead out the door in crappy B movies.
It's just a TV show. Ultimately Hogan died because the script says he did. I just chuckle at the irony of Neelix being the first (and only?) person to lose someone being the self proclaimed survival expert. For all we know, the writers were having fun with us.
Who knows, maybe Neelix really was an officer. Didn't he say once that he served in Talax's military?
He said that, but it turned out later he lied. I think it was in State of Flux? Anyway, I liked Hogan, so any comedic value his death scene could have had for me was squashed. I still get sad when that tortoise-snake-beast eats him! I was a little shocked when the addressed Neelix as "sir," myself. Neelix does attend senior staff briefings, though, so he must hold some kind of power on the ship, even if he has no military rank.
He was a draft dodger. Remember in like the second or third episode and Janeway calls the senior officers to the meeting room and she asks neelix and kes "Why are you here?" aand he replies that he thought that he was a senior officer since he was the "morale officer" with complete sincerity... Janeway rolled her eyes, carried on and the status quo was established. You have to remember too that Neelix is a celebrity. He hosts "A briefing with Neelix" EVERY MORNING.
Minor correction: During the meeting you're thinking about, he referred to himself as "the senior Talaxian" and Kes as "the senior Ocampa" to justify their attendance. The "morale officer" bit came a few episodes later.
WRONG! TNG 'Thine Own Self' showed Dr Crusher in command of the bridge durin' the "night shift" and ended with Counselor Troi takin' the "night shift' after passin' her exam.
^ Of course, that doesn't entirely invalidate the point of his thread, which was about only main cast members being in command even when, logically, there would someone else supervising the night shift.